INDIA. MUMBAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demonstrated its dominance by winning three of the six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra through cross-voting, despite falling short of votes to elect its third candidate in the elections held on Friday.
In the process, the Shiv Sena, relying on the votes of its allies and Independent MLAs, lost its second seat by two votes to the BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik, who received 41.56 votes to the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar’s 39 votes. Sanjay Pawar was actually ahead of Mahadik in the first round of counting ( Pawar 33 votes, Mahadik 27).
The Shiv Sena was running low on votes for the second seat, while the BJP was running low on votes for its third candidate (Mahadik) and had to rely on the votes of its allies. Sanjay Pawar of the Shiv Sena and Dhananjay Mahadik of the BJP were both from Kolhapur. The strategy devised by BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis paid off, and the party may secure the third seat. Seven candidates were running for six seats, and the elections were held by ballot for the first time in many years. Previously, elections were held largely unopposed.
Maharashtra’s winning candidates
NCP: Praful Patel (43 votes), Shiv Sena: Sanjay Raut (41 votes) (three times Rajya Sabha member and Shiv Sena spokesman) (senior NCP leader and former Union Minister), BJP: Piyush Goyal (Union Minister) (48 votes), Dr.Anil Sukhdev Bonde (48 votes) (former Maharashtra Agriculture Minister and now the national general secretary of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha), and Dhananjay Mahadik (41.56 votes) (former NCP MP from Kolhapur and now BJP state spokesperson).
Delay in vote counting
Due to the recent death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke (Andheri, Mumbai) and the refusal of bail by a special court to two NCP MLAs (now in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate), the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has been reduced to 285.
The counting of votes, however, was delayed for more than 8 hours on Friday as a result of the BJP’s complaint to the Central Election Commission that Minister Jitendra Awhad (NCP), Minister Yashomati Thakur (Congress), and Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande violated the set norms while voting. In response, Congress pointed out the alleged mistakes made by BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar and BJP-backed Independent MLA Ravi Rana and demanded that their votes be canceled.
After reviewing the video footage, the CEC declared Kande’s vote invalid and gave the go-ahead to count the votes. Kande allegedly showed the ballot paper to two different agents, which was against the rules. The results were released in the early hours of Saturday.
The MaharashtraVikas Aghadi (MVA) had 158 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly with allies led by the Shiv Sena, while the BJP had 113 seats with allies. While 14 MLAs from smaller parties were more or less neutral. They were critical of the BJP gaining the additional seat.
The results of the elections for 16 seats across the country
Candidates for 41 of the 57 RS seats from 15 states were elected unopposed previously. Elections were only held for 16 seats. Maharashtra had BJP-03, Shiv Sena-01, NCP-01, Congress-01=06, Karnataka had BJP-03, and Congress-01=04, respectively Rajasthan had BJP-01 (BJP supported media baron Subhash Chandra Goyal lost)=04, Haryana had BJP-01, Independent-01 (veteran Congress leader Ajay Makan lost)=02.
The 41 candidates elected unopposed across the country
Uttar Pradesh: BJP-08, Samajwadi Party-01, SP-Rashtriya Lok Dal-01, SP-backed Independent (Senior Lawyer Kapil Sibbal)-01=11, Bihar has two BJPs, two Rashtriya Janata Dals, and one Janata Dal (S). Jharkhand-BJP-01, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-01=02, Chhattisgarh-Congress-02=02, Odisha-Biju Janata Dal-03=03, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-01=03, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-01=03, Jharkhand M Rashtriya Telengana Samiti-02, =02, Telangana Tamil Nadu-DMK-3, Congress-01, ADMK-02=06, and others Madhya Pradesh-BJP-02, Congress-01=03, Andhra Pradesh-YSR Congress-04,=04 Punjab-Aam Admi Party-02=02 and Uttarakhand-BJP-01=01, respectively.
The BJP will now have 95 seats in the Upper House (including the independents). On June 3, the party gained 14 members when 41 nominees from various parties were elected unopposed to the Upper House.
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